Capo IV taught me about networking, or players collaborating at night to complete actions or even to form emergent factions. I was insignificant in Capo, dying early (D6/22); Capo was very much Pizza's show, and he was formally crowned the absolute winner over more than 100 players, Capo di Tutti Capi, by the rules of the setup.
Originally Posted by Askthepizzaguy
It was I who asked for you to be lynched. Nothing personal, it's just business.
Originally Posted by Askthepizzaguy
Originally Posted by Montmorency
Villains only die in the end.
But all villains die.
This ain't one of your Hollywood movies, Monty. Sometimes, when the chips are down, and the heroes give it their all....
they still die and evil wins.
Originally Posted by Askthepizzaguy
You know, I took so many folks to the end with me, hand in hand, doing everything I could do for the team to succeed. But it is not the Care Bears hour ad infinitum, where everyone lives happily ever after; in order for the team to win, more people had to join it, or more people had to die.
Originally Posted by Askthepizzaguy
I used the mechanics available to me in the game to screw over a hundred people, yes.
Cooling down from Capo, I randed Serial Killer in the Org's next game, Andres' The Island - which remains my only SK role to date. My role carried the (imbalanced) advantage of unlimited bulletproof, so I had the double motivation to hunt Mafia of paranoia about being attacked and subsequently cased by them, and simple virile bloodlust against them. I shot about at the two mafiosi from start to finish, with no luck until the eve of LYLO (contributing flavor to the host's writeups along the way). With 4 other players remaining on the final night, having deduced the identity of the final mafioso, I could either shoot a townie and win on the spot - 1-1-1 in the final round would award me a parity win - or shoot the scum and try to persuade townies to let me walk out of gratitude. Suffice to say Town won that game.
Finally, in December, I randed a weak VC-scanner in autolycus' Buffy Mafia 2. I had witnessed power being wielded in Capo of course, but Buffy 2 is the game where I first tasted it for myself.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
It's a real tragedy, but I archived the PMs from 2011 contemporaneously, and only the second half of the game appears extant in my records, so I can't reconstruct the progression of the first half of the game. Moreover, the host didn't get around to releasing all the night actions and role PMs in post-game. Here's my best rundown from available data:
Starting either N1 or D2, I was feeling pessimistic about the gamestate. I knew there was a lot of behind-the-scenes action in the game and I wanted to see if I could tap into some of it.
So I reached out to the towniest player in private, and revealed myself. I offered to network. Then I reached out again. And again. And again...
Pooling our information and resources, we were expanding the network. By the end of N3 I had identified a further:
neutral mason pair of a VC-scanner and role-scanner
neutral Survivor name-scanner
that scanner's neutral doctor friend
another town roleblocker
Using leads from all those scanners I gathered, I privately cornered a certain suspicious player and coerced a confession to his being an evil serial killer. Night actions would subsequently confirm his confession, besides locating an additional, neutral, serial killer. I made the evil SK an offer he couldn't refuse: do as I say, and you'll earn relief from the uncharitable mob - or else get flushed. Coincidentally, I tended to extend versions of this offer indiscriminately regardless of alignment...
As the midgame crested I had accumulated a level of power comparable in the annals of Mafia gaming perhaps only to Pizza himself, who just weeks prior had commanded 5 (of 6) doctors and a serial killer of his own, among other implements.
But that was then, and now Pizza the humanity scanner was the D3 oust over multiple scumbags, over my vehement protestations. I just hadn't secured my grip on the day activity yet. That power struggle would continue behind closed doors as well as in the thread...
For a grandiose example of what I already sounded like in-thread:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Originally Posted by Montmorency
Huff. I'm the one who's been having them cleared, helping them achieve their contact goals -
I am the one who has assembled 3 doctors. Am I to be cast away like a rag by these same, now that my usefulness to them is ended?
God shall bend his bow against those who act in unjust manner to their comrades. His punishment flies not too near, nor past the stars, but timed to pay the debt of Justice on the appointed day.
Originally Posted by Montmorency
Guy,s guys, guys.
Let me say this again: before you go all lone wolf and create headaches for everyone, could you just run things by me first?
N3, my location scanner was slain, but the evil SK killed mafia - on my orders I believe. With almost all living players incorporated into my network, I began targeting those pissing on the tent from the outside. Morbidly, the network was by now so expansive that new membership came at a premium some could not afford.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Originally Posted by Montmorency
He refuses to say anything. Now, when I know everyone's claims, it is easier to really begin vetting the entire population. A precondition for this is the absence of all unknown elements.
Accordingly, we must act to eliminate unknowns where they exist. By whatever means are left to us.
Fluffy being fluffy, I think he will stubbornly go to his death just to say he confounded me.
You know, I took so many folks to the end with me, hand in hand, doing everything I could do for the team to succeed. But it is not the Care Bears hour ad infinitum, where everyone lives happily ever after; in order for the team to win, more people had to join it, or more people had to die.
It should be noted at this point that the evil SK, as I had learned, was in fact a super-SK, charging his KP with every successful kill. By allowing him to exist unhindered from the moment he was outed, he upgraded from 1 shot per night to 3. And unbeknownst to me, he acquired a BP along the way as well.
Yet on this N4, I delivered him two targets with great satisfaction.
Originally Posted by BSmith
Originally Posted by Montmorency
Please clear out Alsark and Seon.
With style.
It shall be done.
The second was the last remaining mafia. Hostile towards me in the thread, making claims to me I could confidently reject as lies, he was an obvious choice.
Before he died that night, he made an attempt on my life. Useless. Tasteless. Naturally I was protected. The Mafia thus faded from the scene with a whimper, having left little mark.
The first was one of the neutral mason scanners. Always at odds with me in the thread, almost totally recalcitrant as to his night actions, I couldn't help but see him as a liability. So he had to go.
I had him eliminated for his insubordination and churlishness. Yes, I legitimately directed a jacked-up serial killer to body a town-friendly scanner because he challenged my leadership and resisted sharing results. In the process, um, irretrievably trashing his partner's wincon. The surviving mason remained mostly cooperative though, so the lesson is that Stalinism pays?
The truth is, though I saved almost every good character worth saving (read on) after I had established my supremacy, my rule was authoritarian, frictious, messy, and inefficient.
Originally Posted by Capo flashback
Askthepizzaguy nodded. "It's a tough business. You have to kill to stay alive. Gotta leave people behind the moment they start saying things they shouldn't, or making plans that don't include you.
That D5, we outed and ousted the Cult leader. He had never got a chance to convert anyone, but only by close call - had I or anyone else targeted them before N4, they would have been converted and themselves become contagious nodes to anyone they came in contact with. Phew!
By now there was only one player stubbornly remaining beyond my full control. Besides that thorn, I was beginning to suspect that the only remaining scum in the game were the two serial killers in my employ. (Before and after I confirmed him the neutral SK never managed to successfully kill.) With supreme arrogance I ordered the evil SK to park all his shots - three now - on me as a flex. I assume here I had him blocked as well, not merely relying on my army of doctors, but wow, the gonads.
Nevertheless, for the first time there were no kills at night. The game was in any meaningful sense already over.
Originally Posted by Askthepizzaguy, Capo IV
That's better. (refers to the writeup wherein there's protection on mister Niklas as promised)
Now listen my townie friends, this game is now in the bag for Ironside, Seon, SisterCoyote, Death is Yonder, and one more makes it for Nightbringer.
I've done my part and risked my own gangsters against your machine-gun toting folks. Kept my word that I'd assist y'all.
With Niklas and Double A on board, we've got the numbers to win the game without executing any of you townsfolk. All you have to do is agree to accept the peace.
You do that, we wrap up this game, NB gets his final protection for the win, and none of you die, even though we control the vote today.
All in favor say aye.
Thus I felt so confident going into D6 that I requested a special arrangement from the host: I convince everyone to Sleep and the game ends, with Serial Killers leaving alongside the Town. I really thought I could pull it off and achieve a beautiful comity between Town and 3P. Hey, the Serial Killers were leashed, so what was the problem? Ein Reich, ein Town, ein, uh... At first my people saw things my way, but as the day passed without activity the embers of revolt were stoked; no votes appeared, but calls for action increased. My confrontational and paranoid style had kept certain information in my hand, at the cost of lingering mistrust and unease beneath the surface.
My reaction was shameful. Like some Sodomite I hastily offered up the neutral SK to the mob; it was their inclination anyway as the neutral SK had hardclaimed the day before. The evil SK remained under my protection. So at EOD instead of staying the course and trying to end the game peacefully, I and a disgruntled PR placed the sole votes ousting the loyal SK during EOD. There is no explaining or defending it, even if instinctive fear called me to preempt a last-minute snipe from any direction.
By now my good will was wearing thin with the thread. My judgement was subjected to interrogation. One of my roleblockers - the one most responsible in foiling my armistice that day - categorically refused to submit to any more orders, publicly announcing intent to holster from then on. In another inexplicable decision, I shrugged my shoulders and took a break from the thread. The last living threat to Town would supposedly be a problem for D7. I told the SK to holster and called it a night.
...
...
It was only halfway through the night that I realized that I had not issued any other orders, the SK was totally unconstrained, and seeing the writing on the wall in the other SK's blood, certain to be on the warpath. You should have seen me scramble.
Ultimately I accepted death as my deserved fate, arranging what doctors I could into a protective chain with each other. The town vig/doc finally unleashed their (fruitless) shot. But I knew that one of my RBs was freezing me out, and the other was unresponsive, the fourth doctor too unreachable on short notice. To dump my info to my trustees was the responsible move; I prepared them for major casualties in the writeup, having done the best I could with the worst I could.
Originally Posted by Askthepizzaghost
Montmorency represents the evil networking. You can't just stand aside and let this happen! You must kill the evil!
I'm already dead so there's just one evil left. My demon spawn, the Monty who would be Pizza except he's NOT PIZZA!!! Death to the pretender to the throne!
...
...
By sheer luck, there was no reckoning of hubris. The SK avoided me entirely, assuming I would be protected. Two of his shots fizzled against the doctor-chain, while his third hilariously struck the very last living player who remained on the periphery of my network. This particular townie (possibly the only VT in the game) was targeted solely because the SK assumed he must hold importance, for all the time I had spent shouting at/about him. Sucks for him that I got him pointlessly killed, but phew!
We sheepishly turboed the SK D7 and that was the end of the game, the end of the line for the super-SK who had singlehandedly (sometimes at my direction) wiped out all three of the primary Mafia team. Almost all townies and townsiding Third Parties achieved their wincons.
In Pizzian terminology, I sought to learn the power of the Sith in order to better defend the Republic, and almost paid the price of falling to the Dark Side.
Originally Posted by Frederick Taylor
It is only through enforced standardization of methods, enforced adoption of the best implements and working conditions, and enforced cooperation that this faster work can be assured. And the duty of enforcing the adoption of standards and enforcing this cooperation rests with the management alone... [Networking] has not place for a bird that can sing and won't sing.
Originally Posted by William Wilson
We are not dealing with horses nor singing birds, but we are dealing with [players] who are part of [the game] and for whose benefit [the game] is organized.
The TLDR bottom line: I wanted to host a game featuring a super-powerful mafia-killing serial killer and balanced out from there. And I'm self-indulgently sadistic sometimes, but I still strive for the overall experience to be balanced and exciting.
Last edited by Montmorency; 05-06-2021 at 01:05.
Vitiate Man.
History repeats the old conceits
The glib replies, the same defeats
Hella good game Monty, thank you!! GGWP Csargo, I'm impressed. GGWP fellow townies! Great game with a hilarious ending. I'm not upset at all, this is hilarious
I spent 90 minutes deciding if I should switch because HK felt pure at the end and the only thing besides "winston is townier" that I could hold against him was the Vro switch offs
I spent 90 minutes deciding if I should switch because HK felt pure at the end and the only thing besides "winston is townier" that I could hold against him was the Vro switch offs
It's funny, the Game of Champions on The Syndicate ended in much the same way. All the wolves were dead, the last person town needed to eliminate was the 3rd party who had been townsiding all game long (except that when the last wolf died the 3P gained NK power and became the last bad guy) and all of us were like "wtf do we do we're all forking townie".
GG and WP Dolby. I ended on Winston b/c you were just working your ass off on solving both of us.
Should have known there's was trickery afoot when all of us were just "eh, they're town" lolol
It's funny, the Game of Champions on The Syndicate ended in much the same way. All the wolves were dead, the last person town needed to eliminate was the 3rd party who had been townsiding all game long (except that when the last wolf died the 3P gained NK power and became the last bad guy) and all of us were like "wtf do we do we're all forking townie".
GG and WP Dolby. I ended on Winston b/c you were just working your ass off on solving both of us.
Should have known there's was trickery afoot when all of us were just "eh, they're town" lolol
GG Csargo!
Yeah, my PoE felt completely wrong because everyone AtE'd so well. I should have re-evaled Csargo.
I feel bad because people got screwed over by accident
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
and I want them to get screwed over on purpose!
GG to Csargo for keeping it steady as the ship sank. I hope townies aren't mad over their wasted effort.
If you have time, please read over the postgame materials and offer thoughts on the design or the gamecourse.
I'm 100% not mad, shit happens, this was one of those minuscule chances, and tbh townies (including and especially me) did not do their due diligence in figuring things out.
I feel bad because people got screwed over by accident
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
and I want them to get screwed over on purpose!
GG to Csargo for keeping it steady as the ship sank. I hope townies aren't mad over their wasted effort.
If you have time, please read over the postgame materials and offer thoughts on the design or the gamecourse.
Nah, man, you did the best you could under the circumstances. I think the only thing that would really have changed what happened here was if there were a crash course to using this particular forum, especially the reply to all function.
Otherwise, the game was amazing. This was an hilarious set of players, everyone remained very civilised, and you designed a game that was greatly paranoia inducing, especially with that Seer mechanic. I think this is by far the most innovative Seer mechanic I've seen, and I will shamelessly steal it for future games I host, lmao.
I was surprisingly disappointed in the last day I played that my incorrect assumption that we had to find the Wolves, not the SK, was incorrect. Trying to figure out who was wolf and who was SK was some of the most fun I've had in a mafia game.
Echoing that the Seer mechanic was great. A pity that it didn't work out, but a very great concept that I think works well 99% of the time. We just got the 1%
Nah, man, you did the best you could under the circumstances. I think the only thing that would really have changed what happened here was if there were a crash course to using this particular forum, especially the reply to all function.
Otherwise, the game was amazing. This was an hilarious set of players, everyone remained very civilised, and you designed a game that was greatly paranoia inducing, especially with that Seer mechanic. I think this is by far the most innovative Seer mechanic I've seen, and I will shamelessly steal it for future games I host, lmao.
I was surprisingly disappointed in the last day I played that my incorrect assumption that we had to find the Wolves, not the SK, was incorrect. Trying to figure out who was wolf and who was SK was some of the most fun I've had in a mafia game.
You just got screwed by bad forum design honestly, because I did the same thing when replying to you during the night and had to go and re:cc Monty when I noticed it. It's just sort of not intuitive...
Originally Posted by Sooh
I wonder if I can make Csargo cry harder by doing everyone but his ISO.
it would have felt like an anti-climax if it'd actually been hk
gg scum, and esp. Csar for fooling me completely throughout
thanks monty for a wonderfully batshit experience - whatever imperfections there were in the set-up, i don't care because it was just great fun, and the write-ups were highly entertaining (esp. the philosophical wolf)
sorry to hk for being so aggressively wrong about him in the last couple of days
and thanks to everyone for making this game a pleasure to play by just being really cool people
Who would want to rerun this sort of setup as an open setup sometime? New Game+? I'm not interested in hosting another version of this game, I'm just trying to gauge the playability of the setup as low-secret (open).
I would love to see another host extend some of the concepts and dynamics tested in this setup. (And allow me to spectate the results.) The way I designed even this setup, there remain many unrealized scenarios with tremendous entertainment value, but it's unlikely there will ever be a direct reprisal of this setup without strong player demand.
One element that is ready for plug-and-play implementation is the chained cop, or chained Town PRs in general. The chaining being, as in Rampage, a requirement to recruit another player to participate in the role action to achieve full and proper effect.
This premise would have been better realized, even holding all mechanics static, in the hands of a host with the creative writing skills of the great Orgah hosts of yore. I hope the writeups at least served as boilerplate. I have no head for creative writing (the Rampage fluff was something between boilerplate and hackery) but as long as I was hosting on the Org I wanted to at least gesture at our proud tradition of epic writeups. (I wrote derivatively, but only some old hands would be able to perceive just HOW.)
Some fluff notes:
1. Soon after I posted signups for the game I trawled Youtube for potentially-relevant anime content to frivolously insert as flavor. Shortly I discovered the anime Overlord and binged it over a week in early April. Shockingly, its themes overlap with the game's concept pretty damn well.
2. For Org-historical reasons almost no one will remember anymore, I decided to insert philosophical text for the SK's dialogue. I referred to Schopenhauer's essays "On the Suffering of the World" and "On the Vanity of Existence." I never read them before, I just figured during pregame, 'Maybe Schopenhauer's characteristic pessimism will fit the theme', and look at that, it offered just the right air of obscure menace. "Every moment of our life belongs to the present only for a moment; then it belongs for ever to the past" is just an all-around great villain line if taken out of context.
3. I reread Lovecraft's "Colour Out of Space" before the game and lifted some phrases and imagery for the flavor.
4. The D1 had a passage adapted from a Tom Clancy novel.
5. I swear there were no backronyms when making up flavor.
Last edited by Montmorency; 05-06-2021 at 01:36.
Vitiate Man.
History repeats the old conceits
The glib replies, the same defeats
Re: Rampage Out of Space
)
Originally Posted by Askthepizzaguy
It was I who asked for you to be lynched. Nothing personal, it's just business.
Huff. I'm the one who's been having them cleared, helping them achieve their contact goals -
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